Chess Guru Academy was founded by the exceptionally talented chess master Amit Panchal with the sole aim acquainting local talents with the best practices of the game. He has been pursuing chess since his childhood and has won numerous prizes at several open and intercollegiate chess tournaments. He was the intercollegiate champion of the year 2006, and went on to become the U-25 Mumbai champion in the year 2009. Presently he is an International FIDE Rated Chess Player and a Chess Columnist with the newspaper Janmabhoomi. He holds the academic qualification of BE (Engineering) and MBA from Mumbai University.